Please respond to the following series of questions in at least 200 words. Comment on the post of at least two other classmates by adding creative and thoughtful perspective obtained from the Freedom House website.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2018 What methodology does Freedom House use to determine freedom? Which are the most free countries in the world? Where are they? Which are the least free? Where are they? Where does the US fall? What factors affect the US ranking? What struck you most about the research available via Freedom House?
25 Comments
Courtney Dunton
9/17/2018 10:23:13 am
Freedom House evaluates the state of the global freedom as seen by their experienced individuals. The freedom the survey looks over is looking over two different categories of freedom, these being civil liberties and political rights. Civil liberties is individual rights which are protected by the law from interference, they allow for belief, expression, associational/ organizational rights, the rule of law, and personal autonomy from no outside feedback from the state. Political rights are the rights that the government gives you, they enable you to participate freely in political processes, a few of these being, the right to vote, compete for the public office yourself, join political organizations, then elect representatives to best suit your country. One of the countries with the most freedom is Norway. Norway's’ aggregate score is 100/100, with a 1/7 freedom rating (1 being most free.) The country with the least freedom is Syria. Syria’s aggregate score is -1/100, with a 7/7 freedom rating (7 being least free.) The United States is pretty free, it’s aggregate score is 86/100, with a 1.5/7 freedom rating. What surprised me the most about being able to view the Freedom House site was Syria, they have -1/100 percent freedom. That is horrible. :(
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McKay Shockley
9/17/2018 07:46:13 pm
This is all really interesting Courtney. It's amazing that Norway is "perfectly free", some other countries that are perfectly free are Sweden and Finland, they both have 100/100 percent of freedom. It is sad that Syria doesn't have any freedom at all. Another country that is close to having absolutely no freedom at all is Turkmenistan with only a 4/100 percent of freedom.
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Anna Pittman
9/17/2018 08:10:47 pm
Syria having a -1 freedom percentage is very horrible. Do you think that Syria is trying to become more free or are they staying the same? I know that North Korea is not trying to change because the people there do not know any better than what they are doing right now. It would be very interesting to find out whether Syria is trying or not. Other than that you have great points Courtney!
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Adam Buell
9/18/2018 10:28:54 am
I also find your answer very interesting. it shows that some of the countries in northern Europe have a perfect score of 100, which also shows citizens have great lives and are overall very happy. It also shows how bad it could be if you lived in a country where freedom is so low, something we all take for granted.
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Zizhe Liu
9/18/2018 01:39:18 pm
tbh at the fist I thought those European countries should be the most free countries, but turned out those most free countries are those countries even dont have army.
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doris Jia
9/18/2018 03:03:31 pm
I agree with you The most free countries in the world is the United States or probably most of Europe.
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McKay Shockley
9/17/2018 07:39:39 pm
The Freedom House determines freedom by evaluating the condition of political rights and civil liberties all over the globe. For the 195 countries and 14 territories it accounts for, it is made up of ratings (through numbers) and supportive descriptive texts. The Freedom House, for each country, analyzes factors such as the political pluralism, the functioning of the government, and the freedom of expression and of belief. Analysts evaluate the over 200 countries and territories through discussions with local contacts, information from news articles, on the ground research and a lot more. The final product is the overall consensus of the advisers, the Freedom House staff, and the analysts. Some countries that are the most free in the world are Botswana, Argentina, and Ghana. Botswana and Ghana are both in Africa, with Botswana at the southern tip of Africa and Ghana to the far west. Argentina is toward the southern part of South America. The countries with the least amount of freedom is Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Somalia. Saudi Arabia being in the middle east, Venezuela at the top of South America, and Somalia being on the far east of Africa. According to The Freedom House, the United States is free. The freedom rating is 1.5 out of 7 with 1 being the most free. Some factors that affect the US ranking would be the disfunction in the criminal justice system, growing differences in wealth and differences in political influence. What made the rating change recently was the growing evidence of Russia interfering with the 2016 election. What surprised me the most about this was that a lot of countries I thought were free are not as much as I thought. Egypt only has 26/100 percent of freedom (with 100 being most free), Nicaragua is 44/100 percent free, and Laos is only 12/100 percent free.
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Anna Pittman
9/17/2018 08:07:20 pm
I appreciate you putting this in simple terms because it helps me to understand it. What surprised me most is just how many factors contribute to the freedom of a country. I also think it's cool that we used two of the same less free countries and saw different things!
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Adam Buell
9/18/2018 10:26:38 am
I also appreciate about how simply you describes this, making it easy to interpret where countries are, and how free or not free they are.
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Courtney
9/18/2018 01:56:03 pm
The way you wrote this was extremely helpful to me. It made me understand exactly what you were talking about. Egypt only having 26/100 percent freedom surprised me, thinking they were more free.
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doris Jia
9/18/2018 03:05:11 pm
I agree with you Freedom house determines freedom by assessing the state of global political rights and civil liberties.
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Nathan
9/18/2018 09:16:56 pm
I agree with you fully. I have done some thinking and the countries with the least freedom seem to not be very wealthy countries, this could be a huge factor in why the people of the country do not have much freedom. Maybe someday if that country is to gain wealth people could perhaps see a change.
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Anna Pittman
9/17/2018 08:03:32 pm
On the website, they use many different key factors to determine how free a certain country is. They look at things like political right, civil liberties, political participation, functions of the government, organizational rights, rule of law, and individual rights. They use an equation to measure how free the country is. This equation is score received divided by the best possible score times the change from the previous year. Some of the most free countries are Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Canada. In Norway, Sweden, and Finland, elections are all free and fair and they all have a strong rotation of political party power. While in Canada, they have political rights and civil liberties.When a minority gets discriminated, the government takes a stand to make a change so that everyone can feel free to do what they want. Finland, Norway, and Sweden are all next to each other on the map so it makes sense that they are all at the same percentage of freedom. Since these countries are so close to each other, they use the same ideas. Canada is right above the United States. Meanwhile, the least free countries include North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia. North Korea is a dictatorship and also the whole country is one party. They have to listen to one person and whatever their leader says is what the whole country does, which is why they are one of the least free countries in the world. It is located between China and South Korea. Saudi Arabia is a monarchy and they have no political rights. It is located Iraq, Yemen, and Oman. In Somalia, there was a collapse in the regime in 1991 and the country has failed to begin another form of government since. It is located under Ethiopia and Kenya. The United States is ranked at 86% freedom. The electoral process and dysfunction in the justice system has negatively impacted the US and made us stay at 86% free instead of going up. What struck me the most was learning why countries are not as free as they could be and seeing all of the little impacts that make a country not as free.
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Courtney
9/18/2018 01:59:27 pm
I also wrote about Norway, I don't know much about Norway but I didn't think a random place up north would be 100% free. Really interesting that some places can be 100% free and some 0% free. Nice!
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McKay Shockley
9/18/2018 11:19:18 pm
This was all really easy to understand! It's cool that Norway, Sweden, and Finland all have a high percentage of freedom. It is upsetting that North Korea is a monarchy and that they don't have as much freedom as other countries. Maybe with time, they'll grow to have a little more freedom.
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Adam Buell
9/18/2018 10:25:02 am
The methodology that Freedom House uses to determine freedom are factors such measures from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the UN began using in 1948. Some of the most free countries in the world are located in northern Europe, which are countries such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. Some of the other most free countries in the world are countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Uruguay. Other superpower countries, such as Great Britain and the United States are also high on the list. However, some countries that are much less free, are countries that have been torn apart by war, such as Syria, which has the lowest rating in the world, with a negative one. Other countries that are not free are Totalitarian states such as North Korea, and other poorer countries in Africa like Libya, Sudan and South Sudan, which have issues with rebel and extremist groups. The US falls in the group of countries that are considered free, but is behind many other countries. Some factors that affect the US are things such as political bias, nonpartisanship, and a lack of transparency in the judicial system and in the overall government. What struck me the most was the low ranking of Syria, which had a negative number, showing how bad it was.
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Nathan
9/18/2018 09:12:55 pm
i was shocked to find out about the lack of transparency in the judicial system because all people should be tried equally and have the same rights as they are on trial as others. If the U.S. can change this i believe that their freedom score will surely go up a few points and that could be huge for people on the outside looking in.
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Landon
9/18/2018 11:47:47 pm
It blows my mind that North Korea is experiencing a mild case of what the Jewish people and the rest of Germany experienced during WWII.
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Zizhe Liu
9/18/2018 01:37:08 pm
Freedom House is using compare political rights and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for each country and a select group of related and disputed territories. Canada, Norway and Australia are the most free countries in the world, they are all touch with ocean and all stay neutral. Syria, Tibet and North Korea are the least free countries, they are lie in Asia. Political Rights of the U.S. is the reason why it’s not the most free country. the one thing shocked me during through this is i didn’t that there is country could be a freedom rating is a negative number.
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doris Jia
9/18/2018 03:01:12 pm
The concept of a Democracy. A basic principle of democracy is majority rule and the protection of individual and minority rights, which, although seemingly contradictory, are the very foundation of democratic government. The reason for this assertion lies in the genesis of the individual rights themselves.Democracy is facing its greatest challenge in recent years. Around the world, the uneven distribution of economic progress and the relentless pace of change test the capacity of democratic institutions and their leaders. Freedom House use to judge all free and partial free and unfree by percentage. The most free countries in the world is the United States or probably most of Europe.The least free is Asia.In 2017, democracy faced its worst crisis in decades as its fundamental principles - including guaranteed free and fair elections, minority rights, press freedom and the rule of law - came under attack around the world. The fifth is the gradual decline of democracy within the United States.It is surprising that America's economic outlook is not as good as it seems
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Nathan
9/18/2018 09:07:45 pm
Freedom house uses people’s basic rights and civil liberties that they are able to acquire in his or her’s country to measure the amounts of freedom they have. They also use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was made by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948. The standards of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is applied to all countries and should be a good way to measure the freedoms of people living in that country. Finland, Norway, and Sweden are the three most free countries in the world. They are in Northern Europe all grouped together and the only one that borders another country is Finland to Russia and they all have similar socialist governments. The least free countries are Syria, Tibet, and South Sudan. Syria is in the middle east and they have a dictatorship and the dictator is cruel and does not give many rights. They are also in a civil war because people are trying to overthrow the dictator. Tibet lies above India in South Asia and is partly owned and ran by the communist Chinese government. The people of Tibet are trying to pull away but cannot. South Sudan lies in Africa and is plagued by civil war. The U.S. falls at number 53 on the rating scale with a score of 86. They fall here because the electoral process has been a little shaky and huge differences in wealth. What struck me most about freedom house is that there are so many countries that have barely to no freedom for their citizens and i was not aware of that.
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Landon
9/18/2018 11:44:40 pm
I was also very shocked at how many countries there were that had little to no freedom. I cannot imagine life without any rights.
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Landon
9/18/2018 11:43:14 pm
Freedom House’s measurements come from the Political Rights and Civil Liberties of each country. Another factor in measuring freedom comes from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is headed by the UN and began in 1948. This ties in with free and fair elections, and the concentration of power. Canada, Norway, Finland, and Sweden are some examples of very free countries. Lawmakers in Canada recognized a problem with discrimination and have already approved a bill that explicitly prohibits discrimination based off of gender expression and identity. Finland’s free and fair system has made corruption of power a small issue. The freedoms of speech and religion is one reason that
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